First of its kind sausage-eating contest held in Boardman

by: Stan Boney

The objective: how many links someone can eat in 15 minutes.

Dan Reash arrived at the mall Monday afternoon ready to take part.

“Prepared myself a little bit, kind of gorged over the weekend. Empty stomach today, so we’ll see. My goal is to hit double digits,” Reash said.

Reash works for iSynergy, a Canfield digital marketing firm which — along with five other companies — was part of the YOlympics, sponsored by HD Davis CPA’s. Events included disc golf, bocce, archery and cornhole.

Four of the five companies in the YOlympics were represented — all by men. The lone female was Mychael- Ann DeFrank.

“I came out of the spa and walked into this and got persuaded and said, ‘Let’s have some fun,’” DeFrank said.

Bill Roesti of Tri-County Tower took the early lead, eating eight links in the first nine minutes. There was no roll, no condiments, just the link. But when Roesti was offered more, he emphatically declined.

“No, no. No, no. No,” Roesti said.

Dan Reash decided to stand, and C.J. Hilbert of HD Davis looked to be making a late run, albeit with his head down in either total concentration or total agony. In the end, Dan Reash was the winner with eight and a half links. Bill Roesti’s eight was second, and C.J. Hilbert was third with seven and quarter.

“You know, I wished I could have trained my jaw a little bit more. I think that’s what held me back of getting that goal of double digits. My stomach feels all right, but about seven sausages in, my jaw was just fatigued and that’s what slowed me down a little bit,” Hilbert said.

“I hit six mileage and it just hit. Everything just sat at the bottom of the stomach. I was getting the meat sweats,” Hilbert said.

“Yeah, I don’t know if I’ll eat sausage again for a while,” DeFrank said.

For winning, Dan Reash won points for his team — iSynergy — in its quest to win the YOlympics. It’s all to benefit the Melina Michelle Edenfield Foundation, to help find a cure for pediatric brain tumors.

 

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